Product review: AcuRite Indoor Temperature and Humidity Monitor

I was looking for an effective yet inexpensive device to read the temperature and humidity for my Artevino II EuroCave. My main goal was to gain the ability to assess the temperature at different levels within the EuroCave, as well as keep an eye on the humidity. In the instruction booklet for the EuroCave, it simply said to dump a glass of water on the floor of the fridge to activate the humidity setting. That was it. I was left thinking (as many people online have been too), how much water exactly, and how do I know it’s working.

Well, a simple little $10 device did everything I needed and more. The AcuRite 00613 Indoor Humidity Monitor. It can read the temperature in Fahrenheit or Celsius, plus humidity. But it also keeps track of daily highs and lows for both temperature and humidity. This is great for watching the impact of adding a few new bottles to the cellar or watching the effect of putting additional water in the bottom. Any fluctuation or abnormality will be recorded. Granted, the highs and low start over everyday, but it’s a nice bonus piece of data to have.

In addition, the device can stand on its own or be mounted via magnet. It is powered by one AA battery.

Performance in the wine cellar: I learned a couple of things rather quickly. Or should I say, I confirmed a few things that I was really curious about.

First, the temperature at the bottom of the EuroCave is 1-3 degree colder on average than towards the top. No surprise here, but I wanted the data to confirm it. I also noticed the humidity was very low, around 25% at first, so I dumped another glass of water in, which bumped it to 35%, and I did another which bumped it close to 50% where it sits right now. I can live with 50%.

Final Thoughts

For $10, a device like this is necessary for any cellar or storage area for wine. You can spend a lot more and get some cool features (including app based monitoring ability which would be fun to have), but for $10, this one will give you a few key data points to monitor your wine cellar conditions.

-Andrew, Editor

What do you use to monitor your cellar? Any other cool tech or inventions for wine cellars? Let us know in the comments below.

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